


the colors that connect us together

by Jun_IJIIJI



Series: and the universe in your eyes (KHR Rarepair Week 2018) [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, KHR Rarepair Week 2018, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 06:45:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14949618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jun_IJIIJI/pseuds/Jun_IJIIJI
Summary: Gokudera Hayato doesn't believe in soulmates.





	the colors that connect us together

**Author's Note:**

> Written by Nova  
> Edited by Jun  
> ^~^

Among flame-users, there was said to be a rumor. “Your soulmate,” they said, “had the same flame type as your secondary flames. The more powerful your secondary, the more powerful your soulmate was.”

 

Most of the mafia liked to scoff at the rumor. “Soulmates?” they asked, cynical and mocking. “Who has time for soulmates? They’re not _real_.” Except they were, as more flame-users found ‘true love’ with people the same flame type as their secondary. And it was obvious they did, or at the very least, somewhat believed in it, because why else would secondaries matter so much?

 

Obviously the had to, or at least somewhat, because why else would a boy who lit up five different colors be suddenly ostracized?

 

Gokudera Hayato did not believe in soulmates. He truly did not. After all, he had five flames and four secondaries, with each one as bright as the rest. They flickered and flared and he could manipulate them, maybe use them too. But soulmates came in pairs only, so either Hayato was more messed up than simply being a bastard child and half-breed or soulmates didn’t exist.

 

(He squashes down the traitor part of him that wants to believe he has four people willing to love him, each as powerful as the last. He squashes down the belief that yes, he could be loved.

 

It died with his mother, he says.

 

Liar, the traitor hisses.)

 

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

 

When Hayato meets Yamamoto Takeshi, he has to lash out. He can feel the latent Rain flames, the powerful Storm simmering just under the surface. He can feel the way his flames try to latch on, and they almost do until he pulls them back.

 

So Hayato lashes out, as if that would push the other away from him. Except, no, that only brings Yamamoto closer, and it gets harder and harder to prevent his flames from tying the bond. So Hayato hates Yamamoto with all his might, like hate might break a soulmate bond and pretends it doesn’t hurt to shove Yamamoto away, pretends he doesn’t see the hurt looks the Rain flashes him.

 

(I don’t have a soulmate, he tells himself, staring at the ceiling of his cold apartment in his too big bed. And if he dreams of calloused fingers and caramel eyes and messy, black hair, well…

 

None the wiser, right?)

 

And when he sees Sasagawa Ryohei, who is so Sunny, it hurts to look at him, Hayato screams BS, even though he can feel the other boy’s Storm, even though he can feel his inner Sun reaching for another star to keep it company.

 

It’s a good thing Sasagawa is easy to rile up, and dense, too. A barbed insult directed towards him, and Sasagawa is quick deflect it back, and the fight starts brewing. It’s easy to pull away if he convinces himself that yes, Sasagawa cares nothing for you, that, yes, he means every word that he throws out. That, no, it isn’t just that he sees the insults as some sort of competition to win, that no, it doesn’t hurt to say every word.

 

(The sun isn’t a binary star, he thinks.

 

He’d like it to be.)

 

It gets worse when he meets Lambo. The kid is noisy and annoying and seriously, how is this kid his soulmate? He’s a decade his junior! But the Lightning in him flickers and reaches and Hayato wrenches his flames away the moment before they can connect. Even if the Storm under the boy’s skin reaches for him, too, this is confirmation enough that soulmates don’t exist, right?

 

But out comes the Ten-Year Bazooka and Lambo is now fifteen and _wow_ , the cow has grown. Even if takes Hayato any semblance of self-control not to flush and seeing the boy (teenager now, he supposes), even if he can see the Storm and Lightning connection, he denies, denies, denies. Soulmates aren’t real, he thinks, even as Lambo pecks him on the check farewell and chuckles as he flushes a fetching shade of red. Soulmates aren’t real, he thinks, even when he can feel his flames quiet at the physical touch, purring contentedly.

 

Soulmates aren’t real!

 

(Right?)

 

Hibari Kyouya and Hayato’s fated meeting ends with Hayato scratching and clawing and his chest, feeling emptier than before. His Cloud had flared out, connecting to the other’s addictingly powerful flames before he could reign them in, and he knows that Hibari and feel the connection too, what with the way he stops, scanning their group. It’s only a moment, but Hayato suddenly feels whole, and, maybe, just maybe, he can keep this, right?

 

No. Wrenching his flames away, cutting the thin thread that pulls them together, and he barely manages to stifle a flinch. The suddenly sudden emptiness feels like he’s been plunged into cold water, and from the way Hibari stumbles, the other boy can feel it too. It takes forever to heal where someone else’s flames should be.

 

Hayato goes around, provoking the prefect, as if violence reciprocated would somehow snap the bond, cover up the coldness in his chest.

 

(It doesn’t. If anything, literal sparks fly when they clash, and not the bad kind.)

 

Hayato’s only reprieve is that the civilians don’t yet know of soulmates. He doesn’t want them to know, not yet.

 

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

 

Tsuna approaches him about the topic.

 

“Jyuudaime!” he shouts, bowing.

 

“Gokudera-kun,” Tsuna starts, fidgeting a little. “You… shouldn’t deny your soulmates so much, you know.”

 

He feels cold. “Excuse me?”

 

Tsuna bites his lip. “Reborn told me about it. Soulmates, I mean. And, um, I noticed that you had multiple secondaries, right? And you could use them, too, so they had to be powerful. So, I put two and two together and, uh, are Yamamoto-kun, Hibari-san, Lambo and Onii-san your soulmates, Gokudera-kun?”

 

“I…” For once, Hayato’s at a loss of words. Suddenly approached about the topic by the person he knows he can’t deny, it’s like being punched in the face, except with words instead of a fist. He knows that, yes, they are, but he’s denied it so long, somehow, he’s deluded himself, too. But Jyuudaime’s asking for the truth, and he knows that, as a good right-hand man, he should give it. “...Yes, they are. At least, I think they are.”

 

There’s a beat of silence. “Did you know that denying soulmates can result in Discord?” Tsuna finally says, tone falsely light and amiable, as if he needs to trick himself into thinking he’s talking about the weather to actually spit it out.

 

Hayato shakes his head, suddenly feeling numb. “...Discord?”

 

“Your Flames, Gokudera-kun.” Tsuna lights a finger with a tendril of orange Sky flame and plunges it into his chest. Somehow, Hayato feels warm again, so used to the cold that he’s never registered exactly how cold he was. A ripple of red is coaxed out, and Hayato’s heart stutters at the clear hole inside it. “There’s a hole in your flames, and soon, it’ll suck everything away. The only thing keeping your flames from completely dying out is your Harmonization with me.”

 

“How… how do I fix this?”

 

“Your soulmates, Gokudera-kun.”

 

And his boss walks away, leaving Hayato with a problem he doesn’t want to solve.

 

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

 

Hibari starts it.

 

“Herbivore,” he greets, stopping Hayato with a tonfa.

 

Hayato glares at the older teen. “What do you want,” he growls, but the bite is gone. The conversation with Tsuna weighed heavily on his mind, and here was Hibari, one of his soulmates.

 

Hibari, straight to the point as ever, says, “You have been growing weaker as of late.”

 

The Storm only glares. He has, and he can’t deny that, but he also doesn’t want to agree. Cognizance of the way the hole seems to eat through his flames, leaving him weaker than ever, has his stomach dropping, and an overactive imagination has him thinking he can feel the minute increments as it grows. Finally, he settles on, “It’s not your problem.”

 

“I think it is.” Hibari leans in closer, close enough that Hayato can feel the warm breath on his face. “That Bucking Horse told me something interesting,” he murmurs, “about flames and soulmates. Care to explain?”

 

Hayato rebukes it with a “I don’t know any more than you.” It’s true enough, he supposes. All he knows about soulmates are slight mentions of them on the street. Street rats aren’t exactly the best informed, not when private matters like soulmates are concerned. Considering the fact he was never taught about them in the first place (“Boys shouldn’t be concerned with those topics,” his ‘mother’ says, but she really says that so he can’t see how she and his father aren’t soulmates) and he can’t exactly ask random people on the streets else he’d be laughed off. He knows of soulmates but nothing about soulmates. Hibari would know more if Dino explained it all to him.

 

“No,” Hibari says. “I think you do.” Whether Hibari is aware of it, he flares his Cloud, and Hayato can feel the way his flames reach out to reconnect. It takes all his willpower to restrain them, and resists the urge to shudder when a sharp stab of _cold_ shoots through him. “I felt it. So did you. Why did you break it?”

 

His chest tightens.

 

“Answer me, herbivore.”

 

He feels cold.

 

“Herbivore?”

 

Everything is numb, and his vision swirls. Why can’t he feel anything? See anything?

 

“Hayato?”

 

And looking at Hibari’s (concerned?) face, Hayato collapses.

 

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

 

Hayato wakes up in a white hospital room. Shamal is right next to him, taking his body temperature. When he notices he’s woken up, the doctor frowns at him. “Hypothermia, weak pulse, blurry vision, fainting, all side effects of going into Discord. What have you been doing, my idiot student?”

 

Hayato doesn’t respond. Shivering, he curls under the heavy sheets he’s been given and wishes he could warm up. He’s so cold, and it’s hard to see straight. It’s hard to get warm, too. He tries to summon his Storm flames, but he barely manages a flicker.

 

It’s so cold. Even under the thick blankets, he can’t warm up.

 

Shamal sighs. “Normally, I wouldn’t treat boys, but Discord is a very serious thing. Vongola has told me about your actions, and I’d say I was surprised, but I’m not. It’s just like you to have these sort of problems.”

 

He tries to respond, but his vision is swimming and all he can do is try to get warmer.

 

“Anyway, don’t reject them this time. If you do, you’ll really end up Flameless, maybe dead. You’re lucky you’ve managed to get this far,” Shamal says, and opens the door to his office.

 

Hayato knows who comes in. He doesn’t look, but the three pairs of feet plus one loud wailing signal who it is. The loud, heavy footsteps of Sasagawa; the light but equally noisy steps of Yamamoto; the quiet and well-trained footfalls of Hibari; Lambo’s loud voice. They’re all there.

 

He doesn’t speak. Neither do they. Even Lambo quiets down.

 

The silence is terrible. Finally, he says, “You know why you’re here.” He means to bark it, but his voice out tiny. Weak. Like he’s resigned himself to his fate, and in a way, he has.

 

“We do,” Sasagawa says. His voice has lost all its shine. Now, it’s just dull. Sad, as if he’d found his sister in his place instead of him. Hayato can’t understand why. After all he’s said?

 

Yamamoto is next. “Why didn’t you tell us?” he asks, voice desperate, lost. It’s mind-boggling how broken he sounds for someone like him.

 

“You shouldn’t have kept this a secret,” Hibari says. His voice is as cold as ever, but Hayato can make out the slight tremor in his words. The prefect is concerned, he realizes. Why?

 

Lambo doesn’t speak. Instead, the five-year-old toddles his way out of someone’s arms and into Hayato’s bed, dropping a grape candy next to where his head is poking out. It’s a meaningful act, in the fact that Lambo is as protective over his grape candy as Hayato is protective over Tsuna; he wouldn’t just give a piece to anybody. It makes no sense why he’d give it to someone like Hayato.

 

The silveret shivers, but manages to find the energy to turn around and look at the other boys. They look concerned, even Hibari and Lambo, and Hayato figures he must look terrible. His silver hair is shaggy and uncombed; his eyes, glazed over; his skin, pallid and deathly pale; dark shadows are under his eyes.

 

Sasagawa moves forward to cup his face in his bandaged hands. Yamamoto’s hand worms under the covers to take his, rubbing soothing circles on the back side. Lambo divebombs the bed and cuddles into Hayato’s back. Hibari, not minding the ‘crowding,’ pats his hair and gently combs through the mess with his fingers.

 

“We’re here for you,” Takeshi says, smiling warmly at him. “You don’t have to be alone anymore.”

 

Ryohei presses a chaste kiss to his forehead. “Yeah. We’re extremely here if you need us.”

 

Hibari offers him a slight smile. “Little animal,” he says, playing with his hair.

 

“S-stupid ‘yato,” Lambo mumbles, sniffling pitifully. “L-Lambo doesn’t understand, but you can’t die yet!”

 

His vision is swimming. Belatedly, he realizes it’s tears. Ryohei smiles warmly and thumbs them away. “We’re here now,” he repeats.

 

Hayato’s tears come down faster, and he buries his face into Ryohei’s chest. Yamamoto pulls him into a hug, and Lambo makes his way to cuddle into Hayato’s front. Even Hibari joins in.

 

His flames, tiny flickers they are, find their way to the right person. He feels them relish in the warmth of his soulmates’ powerful flames, fueling his own Storm. He feels them warming his body in the way the covers couldn’t. He feels the way he opens up too, offering them a piece of his own flames.

 

He feels the way they latch on, and he doesn’t stop them.

 

“Thank you,” he says, as a smile blooms. “I love you. All of you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Pacing? What pacing?  
> Initially this was going to be longer (completely covering Daily Life Arc to post-Future Arc), but Jun was like: Make it shorter!!!!!! and I was like: Yeah sure, I'm lazy and unmotivated, why not, and that's why it sucks.  
> This is also the first time I've participated in KHR Rarepair Week. Let's hope I have the motivation to continue. But hey, that's what Jun's for, right?
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
